


Grounder's Coffee

by julietandherfairjuliet



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 15:42:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6711124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julietandherfairjuliet/pseuds/julietandherfairjuliet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just a coffee shop au that got away from me and ended up being 4500 words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grounder's Coffee

Lexa’s been going to Grounder for her coffee for years now. Not because she likes the coffee because that’s definitely not the reason. It used to be great but now that it’s under new management the coffee is always either watered down or burnt and Lexa hates that. The new owner, Pike or whatever, needs to get it together.

No, the reason she goes to Grounders is because of the atmosphere. As cliché as it may be, she’s a writer. She’s still unpublished but even if she never gets published it’s what she loves to do.

Since Lexa has been a regular at Grounders for so long she’s seen her fair share of baristas come and go. Actually, now that she thinks about she’s pretty sure that the only person that hasn’t left is Octavia. She’s used to seeing new faces at the coffee shop. She didn’t even blink when she walked in and saw a new girl behind the counter cleaning the machines.

Lexa set up her computer at her usual spot. To the far right and next to the window. It’s the best spot in the whole shop to people watch because she can see not only the people inside the shop but also the people outside. Not only can she find inspiration for her characters but also inspiration for settings.

After getting everything set up she walks up to the counter and waits for the new girl to turn around. Her eyes move around the area the girl is working at and then to the door to the back when she sees the door opening. Lexa sees Octavia and gives her a subtle smile, like she usually does.

“Clarke, you have a customer.” She hears. Clarke, that must be the new girl’s name. Not that it matters that much. Lexa knows she won’t last long. They never do.

The girl, Clarke, turned around and Lexa is pretty sure all the air has left her lungs. Clarke’s blue eyes stared straight into Lexa’s green ones as she walked toward the register, Octavia close behind her.

“What can I get for you?” Clarke asks.

“Just a large coffee. Black please.” Is her reply. The exact change already in her hand.

“Get used to that order, Clarke,” She hears as she walks back to her table. “You’ll hear it probably every shift you have.”

Lexa can’t help the small smile that find its way to her face. Octavia is right, Clarke probably will hear her order a lot.

It’s been a few hours now and Lexa has nothing on her page. She’s been trying but the words just can’t seem to find their way on the page and when they do she just doesn’t think they’re good enough. Lexa knows she’s a perfectionist when it comes to her writing but at this point she’d take writing something bad. Okay that isn’t true, Lexa would never in a million years write something that she didn’t consider good. This writers block has been frustrating her for weeks though and she just wants to be able to put something down on the page. A sigh of frustration leaves her lips and she closes her laptop. She’s looking down at the table, rubbing her forehead when she hears the chair across from her scrape against the floor and a cup is set down in front of her. When she looks up from the table she sees Clarke sitting across from her.

Clarke must have noticed her confusion but all she says is she’s on her break and thought Lexa could use another coffee because she looked frustrated.

“Thank you.” Lexa says as she takes a drink.

They sit in silence for a couple minutes but it’s comfortable. It’s Clarke that breaks the silence first.

“What are you working on?” She asks. Lexa really doesn’t know how to answer that. It’s not really anything at the moment to be honest.

“I’m a writer.” She decides on. Simple. Not too personal and doesn’t mention the fact that she has been here for hours and has nothing on her page. Clarke seems to light up at this though.

“That’s so cool!” Clarke exclaims. “I’ve never met a writer before.” She stops for a second, thinking about what her next words are. “Well not one that writes professionally.”

“I wouldn’t say I write professionally. I haven’t been published yet so I can’t really say I’m a professional but I do love it and hope one day to make a profession out of it.” Lexa explains.

It’s true, too. As much as Lexa wants to claim to be a professional writer, she isn’t.

“So how do you make money then?” Clarke asks. She must have realized how that sounded because her eyes got wide and she was stumbling over an explanation. “That was definitely not what I meant. I’m an artist and I know that when people don’t buy your work it can make for a hard time paying bills which is actually how I ended up here.”

Lexa understands what she means. Just as she’s about to tell her that Octavia’s voice rings out from behind the counter.

“Your 15 minutes is up Griffin-Bore, get back to work.”

Clarke gives Lexa and apologetic smile and Lexa nods to her. When Clarke makes it back behind the counter Lexa opens her computer back up. She’s found new inspiration for her characters.

She’s been at Grounders for just about six hours now and she’s managed to get almost five pages completed. She doesn’t know where her story is heading but she can’t wait to find out. While she’s packing up to leave she hears a commotion coming from the counter and when she looks up she sees a man in a well-tailored suit, obviously thinks he’s important everywhere he goes, complaining, loudly, to Clarke. Before she can stop herself she’s walking over to the man, fists clenched, trying not to show her anger.

“Is there a problem here?” She asks the man.

“This blonde bimbo can’t get a simple order right.” He says. “How hard is it to punch in a venti, half-whole milk, one quarter 1%, one quarter non-fat, extra hot, split quad shots, no foam latte, with whip, 2 packets of splenda, 1 sugar in the raw, a touch of vanilla syrup and 3 short sprinkles of cinnamon?”

Lexa stares at him in disbelief for a second.

“Okay first of all her name is Clarke and you will not use any other name except that when referring to her. Secondly, this isn’t a fucking Starbucks. Take your obnoxious ass over there if that’s what you want to drink. Finally, if you had taken the time to pay attention to anything going on around you, you might have noticed that Clarke is new here, isn’t that right Clarke?” She asks. Clarke just nods in response. Octavia comes out from the back and notices the scene and walks over.

“Lexa, what’s going on here?” Octavia asks. Her hand rests on the small of Clarke’s back to comfort her.

“This asshole was just leaving.” Lexa tells her. A glare shot in his direction. He apparently didn’t get the message though.

“No. I’m not leaving until Blondie here gets my drink.”

In all the time’s Lexa has been to Grounder’s she doesn’t think she’s ever seen Octavia truly angry. Irritated sure, but that comes with working in customer service. This was different though. Lexa doesn’t scare easily but she decides here and now that she never wants to be the cause of Octavia’s anger.

“You will get out of my shop right now. You will not ever come back here and if you do I will not hesitate to force you out of her myself. Is that clear?” Lexa feels the chills creep up her back. She’s never heard Octavia so cold. She honestly didn’t think Octavia could get so cold. The man must finally get it because he turns and leaves but not without a crude hand gesture to the three women. Octavia nods in thanks to Lexa and pulls Clarke to the side, away from the peering eyes. Lexa takes this as her cue to leave and goes back to her table to grab her laptop bag. When she hears the door open she looks up and can’t help the smile on her face when she sees who it is.

“Tyrannosaurus Lex!” The girl calls out as she walks over to her.

“Hello Raven, always a pleasure.” Lexa responds. Raven always comes to pick up Octavia from work so Lea isn’t surprised to see her. Raven, on the other hand seems to be surprised to see her.

“Where have you been? I feel like I haven’t seen my favorite broody writer in ages.” Raven says.

“I had to go out of town for a couple weeks and settle some stuff with my parents,” Lexa explains. “And I’m not broody.”

“You’re broody. But I’m glad you’re back.” Even though Raven knows Lexa won’t hug her back she still hugs her anyways. Raven used to ask if it was okay before she would hug her but Raven considers Lexa a friend now and she hugs her friends. She pulls back and looks at Lexa then the counter.

“Are Octagon and Griffin Whore ready to go?”

“Raven I don’t work here. How am I supposed to know if your friends are ready to go?” Lexa asks.

“You may as well work here,” Raven counters. “You’re here all the damn time. Like seriously, do you even have a house?”

“Raven leave my customers alone.” Lexa turns her head to see Octavia walking out of the back putting the rest of her grilled cheese in her mouth. She knows it isn’t her place to judge but Lexa thinks Octavia’s eating habits are atrocious and make her look like a chipmunk. She’s pretty sure Octavia plays a game with herself called how much food can I fit in my mouth this time without choking.

“Technically she isn’t _your_ customer O.” Raven fires back. “You don’t actually own the shop.”

“Okay I’m going to stop you both right there before this gets out of hand.” Clarke says as she comes out of the back. “Raven we’re all proud that you have your own mechanics shop. Octavia we all know that this shop may as well be yours and you would run it better than Pike and if you didn’t have to deal with his shitty management this place wouldn’t be slowly going broke. Can we leave now?”

“Yes Clarkie, we can leave now. Goodbye Lexa, see you tomorrow.” Raven says as she walks out. The two following her give her a wave on their way out and Lexa gives them a small smile in response.

She grabs her back and heads out the door and starts walking towards her apartment. When she’s about halfway up the stairs to her apartment she pulls out her phone and looks for her best friends contacts. Her friend picks up on the third ring and Lexa is eternally grateful.

 _“What’s up baby Lex?”_ The voice on the other end asks.

“I’m back home now Anya.” Lexa tells her. “Can you come over? I want to tell you about what happened with my parent’s lawyer.”

 _“Yeah sure I’ll be there in 20.”_ Anya says and then she hangs up.

Lexa is just finishing putting away he clean dishes when Anya walks in. Anya has a tendency to make herself at home and as much as Lexa pretends it bothers her she’s actually really happy about the familiarity they have.

“Come sit Lexy Loo and tell me how home was.” Anya says as she pats the couch cushion next to her. Lexa goes to sit down.

Anya is the only person who knows what Lexa has been dealing with from her parents. They weren’t exactly supportive of her when she came out to them when she was younger but they had just started to come to terms with it when they got sick. Lexa had been keeping Anya up to date on everything while she was away. When they passed Anya was the first person she called and of course Anya was right next to her throughout the funeral services. Anya had to come back for work though and has been back for a week or so. Lexa told her that she’d call her when she got back and they could talk about what else happened when she got back.

“My parents left me everything, Anya.” Lexa says. She had met with the lawyer and she’s not exaggerating when she says her parents left her everything.

“What do you mean they left you everything?” Anya asks.

“Exactly that. I know we were never close but they were still my family. It wasn’t like we were on bad terms or anything. We just weren’t close.”

Anya looks at her and she can just feel all of the questions.

“I have everything now. The house, their money, all of their possessions. Anya I literally have everything. I have things from them I didn’t even know they had. Anya there was a bank account with almost 3 million dollars. They must have been saving for years to accumulate that much. What do I even do with all of that?”

“Give it to charity. Buy a new car. I don’t know Lex. Figure something out.” Anya tells her.

The conversation tapers off and they end up watching something on Netflix. Anya leaves after the two of them have dinner and Lexa gets herself settles in for the evening. She falls asleep shortly thereafter.

* * *

 

It’s been almost three weeks since Lexa met Clarke at Grounders. Lexa has figured out Clarke’s schedule. She knows how creepy that sounds but it’s easy to figure out someone’s schedule when you’re at their place of employment every day. Hell, she learned Octavia’s schedule within two weeks.

She’s sitting at her usual table when the sound of the chair being scraped across the floor sounds. Lexa knows it’s Clarke. It’s always Clarke. In the past couple of weeks this has become their routine. Lexa comes in and orders her black coffee, she sits down and starts writing, and a couple hours later when Clarke is on her break she’ll join her. It’s only for 15 minutes but each time Lexa finds herself liking the blonde more and more.

“How’s the story coming, Lex?” Clarke asks. Lexa smiles a little and then Clarke speaks up again before she can answer. “I like when you smile like that. It’s small but you always have a little nod that goes with it when something makes you happy and it’s really cute.” Just like that there’s a blush creeping its way onto Lexa’s face.

“Sorry,” Clarke says “I interrupted you before you could answer. Let’s try again. How’s the story coming, Lex?”

“It’s going well, Clarke, thank you for asking.” Lexa says. She’s trying to stay focused on the conversation but she can’t stop thinking about the fact that Clarke just called her cute. Clarke has been making comments like that for the past week Lexa can’t figure them out. She’ll say these things and Lexa will think she’s flirting but they go just as quickly as she says them. She never dwells on what she’s just said to Lexa. It’s like these comments don’t make Clarke feel anything but they make Lexa feel everything.

“Well what’s it about? Will you let me read it?” Clarke asks her.

“I actually think I’m almost done” Lexa responds. “I don’t know if I’ll let you read it until it’s published though.”

“Come on Lexy Loo, let me read it.” Lexa has to do a double take at that. Anya is the only person who calls her that. Anya is the only person who has ever, in Lexa’s 24 years, that has ever called her Lexy Loo.

“Did you just call me Lexy Loo?” Lexa asks. She needs to make sure that she heard Clarke correctly.

“Time to get back to work Griff.” Octavia calls from behind the counter. Leave to Octavia to interrupt at the most inconvenient times.

“I’ll see you later, Lex” Clarke calls to her as she walks back behind the counter.

Lexa works more on her story and before she knows it an hour has passed. The little bell above the door chimes and when she looks up Lexa isn’t surprised to see Raven. Lexa waves her over. She’s actually been meaning to talk to Raven but it’s never been the right time. She’s always with Octavia and she needs to talk to her about Octavia.

She smiles at Raven as she sits down.

“What’s up Lex?” Raven asks.

“Raven, I have something I need to talk about with you and I need you to swear to me that you won’t tell anyone.” Lexa tells her. This is of the utmost importance and she needs to be sure that Raven won’t tell.

“I swear I won’t say anything.” Raven tells her. “Unless you killed someone. I need you to know that I am obligated to tell someone if you killed some.” Raven looks at her seriously and for a moment Lexa isn’t sure if she’s joking or not. It’s only when Raven smiles that Lexa relaxes.

“No I didn’t kill anybody.” Lexa looks at Raven. It’s now or never. “How much money would Octavia need to buy this place from Pike?” Raven just looks at Lexa.

“What do you mean, Lex?” Raven asks.

“Exactly what I asked you, Raven.” Lexa tells her. “I know how much Octavia loves this place and I know how much she would love to own it. I want to help her.”

“Lexa, I don’t mean for this to sound rude, but how are you planning on helping? You’re an unpublished author and I would imagine that pays about as much as Clarke made before she started here.”

Lexa understands her concerns. She doesn’t want to go too in depth with how she’s gotten the money. That’s too personal, they aren’t that kind of friend.

“I’ve inherited a lot of money recently, from my family, and I care about Octavia. I want her to have this.” Lexa tells her. She doesn’t really know what else to say. She has come to think of Octavia as a friend and friends help friends.

“I don’t know, Lex. More importantly I don’t know if Octavia would want help.”

Raven’s right. Octavia is one of the most independent people that Lexa had ever met. It’s one of the things Lexa has come to admire greatly about her.

“What if it was a gift?” Lexa asks. She really wants to do this for Octavia. Octavia is deserving of everything good in life.

“I’ll see what I can find out.” Lexa smiles and nods to show her appreciation.

“Thank you Raven.”

* * *

 

Raven found out that Octavia would need roughly 50k to own the shop. What she didn’t find out was how Octavia would feel if she bought the shop for her. She had a meeting with Pike yesterday and it had gone well. He told her he’d sell her the shop. All she has to do now is hand him the check and sign the papers. That’s where she’s heading now actually.

It’s quick and easy to get everything done. She’s poured her heart and soul into getting this done for Octavia and now she’s about to hand Octavia everything. She walks in and the first thing she does is walk right up to the counter.

“Hello Clarke” She greets. “May I speak with Octavia please?”

“Uh yeah sure,” Clarke responds. “Let me go grab her.” Clarke heads to the back and that’s when the nerves start to set in. What if Octavia doesn’t want this? What if Lexa is over stepping boundaries?

“Lex? What’s up?” Octavia asks.

“Can you step away for a moment?” Lexa asks. “I have something I really need to talk to you about.”

“Oh yeah sure, Clarke can you cover me for a couple minutes?”

“Yeah, go ahead. Do your thing. I’ll be here.”

They walk to Lexa’s usual table and sit down, Octavia across from Lexa.

“Octavia, I’ve come to think of you as a friends, which is something I don’t take lightly,” Lexa starts. “You’ve been here the entire time I’ve been coming here. You put your blood sweat and tears into this place.”

“Lexa where are you going with this?” Octavia asks

“Let me finish please. You’ve put your blood sweat and tears in this place and I know how much you love it here. You want this place to thrive. I know if you had the money when the owners were selling you would have bought this place. This place has become your life and I want you to be able to come here every day and love what you do. This is probably over stepping a lot of boundaries but like I said, I consider you a friend and I don’t take that lightly.” Lexa finishes her spiel and pulls out a folder with all the necessary documents. “You’ve basically been the owner for years now so I thought it was only right to make it official.” Lexa hands her the folder and waits. Octavia takes her time looking through everything, hey eyes widening as she realizes what this means.

“Lex,” Octavia starts. She trails off and stares at Lexa for a moment. “You….you bought Grounders for me?”

“Like I said, I know it’s over stepping boundaries but you deserve this.”

The next thing Lexa knows there are arms wrapping around her neck. She stands stiffly for a second then she feels her arms wrap around the other girls waist.

“Thank you so much Lexa,” Octavia mumbles. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this but I will never be able to thank you enough.” Octavia lets go and Lexa can see there are tears in her eyes.

“Do you mind if I get Clarke out here to tell her?” Octavia asks.

“Octavia,” Lexa says with a smile, “You’re the owner. You can pretty much do whatever you want.”

“Clarke come here!” Octavia exclaims.

“What, O?”

“You know how you like Lexa? Well I like her so much more than you right now, which I know is pretty hard to believe since she’s all you seem to talk about but she literally bought me Grounders. If you don’t wife her up, I will.” Octavia’s bouncing toward the back but Lexa doesn’t notice. She’s too shocked by what Octavia said and the red of Clarke’s face.

“Well I uh ahem well I guess I should get back to work so I’ll just,” Clarke trails off as she starts to walk toward the back again.

“Clarke wait,” Lexa calls out. When Clarke stops is when Lexa realizes she hasn’t exactly thought this through. “I just…well I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go to dinner with me tonight?” Clarke smiles and Lexa is pretty sure her heart is going to pound right out of her chest.

“I would love that Lex.” Clarke says.

“Great wonderful okay well here’s my address,” Lexa says as she hands her a napkin with a freshly written address on it. “Come by at eight?”

“I’ll be there.” Clarke says with a smile.

* * *

 

It wasn’t until Lexa got home that she remembered that she isn’t the best cook. She can cook enough for her to get by but she isn’t much of a cook. She called Anya but she didn’t answer so she left a message telling her to come by at 7 to help her cook but it’s 7:30 and she’s settled on just macaroni and cheese. Hopefully her candles make it a little more romantic.

She’s just finished getting everything ready when she hears a knock at the door. Her clock says it’s 7:50. Clarke. She opens the door and she’s her breath catches in her throat. Clarke looks beautiful. This is the first time she’s seen Clarke outside of her work uniform and she hopes that after tonight she can see more of it.

“Clarke,” She finally manages to find her words. “You look beautiful. Please come in.” She opens the door wider for Clarke to come in and shuts the door behind her as she walks inside.

“Make yourself at home.” Lexa tells her. She watches as Clarke goes to sit on the couch, while she goes to the kitchen to finish the macaroni and cheese.

“Lexa are you making macaroni and cheese?” Clarke asks her. Clarke can smell it from the kitchen.

Like it always happens, just as Lexa is getting ready to answer Clarke, something interrupts. This time it happens to be her door bursting open and Anya running in.

“Lex I’m so sorry I wasn’t here sooner I just got your message and I rushed over as soon as I…” Lexa comes from the kitchen and glares at her. “What?” Anya asks. She looks around and when she notices Clarke realization dawns on her.

“Oh my god,” Anya exclaims. “Is this her? That Clarke girl you’re always talking about?”

“Aw Lexy Loo, you talk about me?” As soon as Lexa hears that name come from Clarke’s mouth she wants to disappear. She can feel the look Anya is giving her and she just wants Anya to leave already.

“Okay Anya it is time for you to leave. When you get home make sure all of your clocks are set on the right time. Okay goodbye.” She pushes Anya out the door and turns back to Clarke.

“I’m sorry about her. She was supposed to be here an hour ago to help me cook because I realized I don’t actually know how to cook very well and since she didn’t answer I ended up just making macaroni and cheese. I hope that’s alright.”

“Lex, this is perfect. Honestly.”

Dinner goes smoothly after that. Clarke ends up falling asleep during the movie they end up watching. Lexa carries her to her bed and then she ends up falling asleep on the couch.

* * *

 

It’s been almost 8 months now. Clarke and Lexa have been dating, Grounders is thriving, and Lexa has sent her book out to quite a few different publishing agencies. She’s hoping one of them will get back to her this week but she’s also not rushing anything. If it happens it happens. That’s something Clarke has been helping her realize in the time they’re been together.

Octavia, Clarke, Raven, and Anya are all at Lexa’s for dinner that evening when Lexa gets the call. It’s from Trikru publishing and they’re going to publish her book. She’s going to actually be a professional author. After she makes the announcement to her friends she looks at them and sees how proud they are. Lexa can’t think of anyone she’d rather share this moment with. She’s so grateful for what she has in her life.  

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Jade (thebetterblaketexts or ehhqueerenough on tumblr definitely go follow her) for the nicknames. Also Thanks to Jade for helping me with the original concept for the story. She is the reason I'm writing so much these days.   
> As always you can find me on tumblr at julietandherfairjuliet.


End file.
